


Another Day

by DuskMeGirl (queriter)



Category: New Guardians (Comics)
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, and circuit is his right hand man in costume and out, i have this theory, implied golden girl/dusk if you squint, that shadow is totally francis leeds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 21:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11021775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queriter/pseuds/DuskMeGirl
Summary: Another day, another tabloid. Circuit lets himself wonder for a second what it'd be like to see himself on the covers next to the man he loves instead.





	Another Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Patriotic_Fever (Qiulann)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qiulann/gifts).



The latest issue of the biggest gossip magazine in the country landed on the table in front of him with an audible thud.

“Hm?” hummed Jason Ward, looking up from his phone. “What’s this?”

He knew exactly what it was. He’d stared at the picture for half an hour and read the accompanying article five times this morning alone. Was he in the mood for torture today? Yes, he figured as he looked down at the glossy photograph once more, he was.

The large doe eyes of Miranda Argent stared back into his, almost taunting him with their good-natured glint. He couldn’t help but take note of her flawless skin, the way her dress hugged her curves, accentuated the mile-long run of her legs. They looked good together. Of course they did.

“Oooh,” he cooed, good naturedly. “How’d you land yourself a catch like that, Frank?”

“I thought you told the PR guy to stay on top of things like this.”

Ward sighed, leaned back into the plush of his chair with an exasperated roll of his eyes. “I _did_. I’m sure Bobby did what he could. But you know how the paparazzi are—”  
“And I don’t care, Ward. Our stock went down.”  
Ward laughed. For a moment he wondered what exactly it was about Francis Leeds that turned his stomach into knots. “Of course it did. People think our CEO is an irresponsible playboy.” His phone pinged in his hand, interrupting whatever Leeds’ response was going to be. It was Marlow, telling him, naturally, to hurry his ass up and get back to work.

Ward let out a breath and groaned. He’d been clocking overtime for two weeks, and it still wasn’t enough for the cheeky physicist? To be fair, they were only months away from the launch of their newest project, something they hoped would change the way the world interacted with technology forever. But still. He’d have to remind Marlow exactly who was the team leader when he went back to the lab.

“Luckily for you,” said a grinning Ward to a frowning Leeds as he stood, “they also think I’m the brightest mind to walk this planet in years.” He ignored the hardly audible amused scoff that left his boss’s mouth.

Halfway out the door, Ward turned and poked his head back into the office. Always the professional, Leeds was already seated at his desk, working on some paperwork.

“By the way,” he said, “I got you coffee.”  
Leeds didn’t respond.

“Double espresso. The way you like it,” he added.

“Thank you,” said Leeds finally, still not looking up from his work. Ward swallowed down the hurt.

“Attaboy,” he said, mimicking the way he knew his own voice sounded when he was teasing the man. “I knew you hadn’t forgotten your manners. You’re _welcome_.”

As he shut the door behind him, he added in a whisper, “I love you.” He spent a moment like that, eyes shut, leaning back against the heavy wood for support. Then he breathed deep and set off towards the lab.

 

He didn’t get to spend much time there. Some twenty minutes into fiddling with some of the malfunctioning parts of the machinery, his phone pinged again. He looked down at it to see a message from Leeds then looked up to see Marlow, across the room, eyeing him with suspicion. Ward coughed, choking on his own spit. Was this guy a detective or something? Hurriedly, he responded to Leeds’ text of “Need you. Now.” (Jesus, did Leeds really have no idea what shit like that did to him?) with a short, “Ummmm. Working on YOUR company’s project atm. How bad?”

Glancing up again, he looked straight into the narrowed eyes of Marlow. He laughed nervously. The phone pinged again. **“Emergency.”**

Goddammit.

“Sorry, guys,” said Ward hurriedly, already shedding his lab coat. “Family emergency. I’ll pull double overtime tonight! Really sorry!” he called as he rushed out of the room, his coworkers’ concerned calls ringing out behind him.

 

In his private room at the Warden’s headquarters, Francis Leeds, known residentially as The Shadow, thought back on the events of earlier that morning. Over and over, they ran through his mind, once twice, thrice— 

“Damn it!” he groaned, slamming his forehead into the metal door of the closet that stored his hero costume.  
What had he been thinking? What was he hoping to get from flaunting the image of himself and some woman before Ward’s eyes? Whatever it was, he didn’t get it. He thought back to Ward’s gaze of disinterest. That is, until his eyes landed on the long length of Miranda Argent’s legs. They’d look good together, he thought bitterly.

The image of Ward’s recent feature in an editorial came to mind. The crisp, clean lines of his designer suit, his soulful eyes, the long, languid limbs of the blonde draped tantalizingly across his lap. The thought of him and Ward in a similar position made him laugh. They’d only ever be photographed separately, he supposed, their individual portraits placed side by side. How ironically fitting.

They’d been in a picture together. Once. For a feature on New York’s hottest bachelors. The shoot took place on the rooftop, wind very dramatically blowing through their hair. Leeds hadn’t even wanted to do it. He’d only gone because Ward had convinced him to. In the end, they’d ended up standing five feet apart, two tall, beautiful models between them. In the magazine, the crease of the binding split the two of them apart once more. He still kept a copy of it in the drawer of his bedside table.

Pushing the thoughts of Ward out of his mind, Leeds slipped his mask on over his face, composed himself, and stepped out of his room in the skin of The Shadow. Almost immediately, he ran into his young protege, Dusk. With eager eyes, she asked him, giggling, if Golden Girl would be tagging along too.

“No,” he said, narrowing his eyes.  
Dusk pouted. “Why not? I haven’t seen her in over a week, Shadow, _pleeeaaase._ ”

“She’d only be a distraction,” he answered curtly, brushing past Dusk. Christ, was he seriously jealous of his mentee? How low could he possibly get? For a moment, he considered…  No. He shook his head. Asking his seventeen year old protege for relationship advice on how to get past being friends was just too much.

Just then, Ward, still in his perfectly tailored white button-up and black slacks, burst into the room, visibly out of breath from running.

“I’m gonna… go… get dressed,” he breathed in between pants. Shadow had to resist the urge to stare at the patch on Ward’s back where sweat had dampened his shirt, causing the thin material to stick to his skin and stretch along the taut muscles of his shoulders. He swallowed thickly.

“Wait,” called Shadow. “Where’s—”

  
“Here,” came the preemptive response. Shadow looked towards the doorway, where a glum looking Aether was dragging his feet over the threshold. “I’m missing a physics test.”

“You’ll make it up,” answered Shadow coldly.

Aether’s frown deepened, and the boy looked on the brink of tears. “Circuit,” he whined, following Ward into their private room. Great. Now he was jealous of a teenage boy too.

 

“What exactly am I here for?” sighed Circuit over the comms. “No offense or anything, but this seems like something you and Dusk could’ve handled on your own.”

It probably was. Shadow wasn’t about to tell Ward that he had practically been searching for any excuse to spend time with him. It was a stupidly impulsive decision to text him to come along anyway.

“Never underestimate an enemy,” he answered instead.

Circuit’s reply was a dramatic groan. It sent chills down Shadow’s spine. He cursed his own oversensitive ears.

The four heroes carefully picked their way towards the telekinetic villain wreaking havoc in the middle of times square. They’d gone over the battle plan on the way over. Circuit and Aether on distraction duty while Shadow and Dusk would sneak up on the hovering villain and tackle him out of the sky. Simple.

It was sheer luck that the man turned to where Dusk and Shadow were moving. Just his kind of luck. The bad kind.

“Duck!” he shouted over the comms as a car hurtled in their direction.

He heard Circuit curse loudly, and then a subsequent crunching. He looked up to see various electronic billboards coming down from their respective buildings on top of the villain. The man, who Shadow could now make out was calling himself Kinecto, easily ducked out of the way, using his powers to deflect the debris back towards Circuit. Shadow choked back the worry. He knew Circuit could handle himself. Besides—a blue streak flashed in the sky and carved out a rather sizeable hole into the top floors of a highrise—he had plenty decent backup. He focused his attention on making his way towards Kinecto to take him down before he could do any more damage, either to the city or to Circuit.

A ragged scream rang out over the comms, and Shadow’s head whipped back to look towards Circuit. Aether blocked his view for an instant, hovering over the body of the older man, who had collapsed onto his knees. He saw Circuit wave Aether away, gesture back to the ever present villain in the sky. Aether moved, and Shadow got his first glimpse of a wincing Circuit, struggling to his feet while he clutched at his heavily bleeding upper arm.

Shadow gritted his teeth, his hands shaking. If he’d had any thoughts of taking mercy on the deranged telekinetic, those were all gone now. Fifteen minutes later, the fight, if it could even be called that, was over.

“Wow,” he heard Aether say. “That was savage.” A pause, then, “That’s what they say, right?”

“Aether…” Dusk whispered into her comms. “No…”  
“Oh,” he said, softly. “Anyway, I’m going to fly Circuit back to base. He needs to stitch up his arm.”

Shadow hummed a low, graveled sound as a response. He had to take the defeated villain to the police station. Hopefully by the time he made it back to base, he’d be calmed down enough to face Circuit with his standard stoic demeanor. 

 

Ward was all lopsided smiles when Shadow stepped into his room. He was sitting up, reclining against headboard of the bed, two open books lying face down beside him. A hint of a smile pulled at Leeds’ lips; all of Ward’s little idiosyncrasies never failed to amuse him.

“Hey,” said Ward, with a grin that could light even the darkest day. “Things sure took a _sharp_ turn for the worst, huh?”

Leeds winced at the terrible joke, but Ward’s accompanying laugh set the butterflies in his stomach aflutter.

“Do us all a favor and never say anything like that ever again,” he said, a hint of mirth coloring his tone.

“Is that _amusement_ I hear in the stone cold Francis Leeds’ voice?”

“Shut up,” said Leeds, with a chuckle. “Here.” He held out a small brown paper bag. “I bought you coffee. Half milk, one sugar. The way you like it.”

Ward’s half cocked smile dropped from his face. He reached out a tentative hand. “Frank…” he said, sounding genuinely touched. Leeds couldn’t help but avert his gaze in embarrassment.

“I knew it,” said Ward, with a soft laugh. “You do care.”

Leeds arched an eyebrow in offense. Ward laughed again.

“Thanks, Frank.”

“You’re _welcome_ ,” said Leeds, echoing Ward’s tone from earlier that morning. With that, he turned on his heel and stalked towards the door.

“Don’t you have anything else to say,” called Ward after him. “Maybe wish me well? Or something? I almost _died_ , Frank. Wow. You’re so _co—_ ”

“Yeah, yeah, feel better, Jason. Or whatever,” he cut Ward off, waving a dismissive hand over his shoulder.

Leeds tilted his head back once he shut the door behind him, leaning against the cold metal. “And by the way,” he muttered quietly, “I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Patriotic.Fever: Here I wrote a true ending for you guys: And then suddenly Frank burst into the room and said, “take me now u big piece of hunk meat. my butt is ready.” And then they had the sex and loved each other until death. 
> 
> DuskMeGirl: dont desecrate my work like this
> 
> Patriotic.Fever: hunty, i made it better. I gave the fans what they wanted.
> 
> DuskMeGirl: the fans want to CRY. 
> 
> Patriotic.Fever: I WANT TO CRY. How are you going to fix this huh??
> 
> DuskMeGirl: a box of tissues and pretty in pink?? 
> 
> Patriotic.Fever: *sniffles* I’ll be there in 5.
> 
> DuskMeGirl: lolol. Alright, guys! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this one! It’s not as angsty as some other stuff, but I didn’t want to make it too sad lol. Like and comment if you enjoyed it! As always, a huge shoutout to PF for betaing and proofing for me! Love you, girlie!!


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